2012 October

Kansas State remained the only undefeated Big 12 team and in the hunt for the national title by cruising to a 55-14 victory on the road against West Virginia.

Last year's United States Sports Academy's College Football Game of the Year was Alabama's shutout, 21-0, of LSU in the national championship game. Daniel Moore's painting of the Game of the Year can be purchased online at newlifeart.com.

The No. 4-ranked Wildcats’ dominating performance in a battle for first place in the conference earned it selection as the Week 8 winner of the United States Sports Academy’s 2012 College Football Game of the Year Contest.

Kansas State was led by their Heisman Trophy front-runner quarterback Collin Klein, who three for three TDs and ran for four more to help Kansas State improve its record to 7-0 overall and 4-0 in the Big 12. Klein, who completed 19 of 21 passes, threw for a career-high 323 yards and he added another 41 yards rushing.

Klein’s option keeper for an 8-yard scoring run with 4:27 left in the second quarter put Kansas State ahead 24-0, and it gave him 39 rushing touchdowns over the last two seasons. That breaks an FBS record held by Eric Crouch of Nebraska and Stacey Robinson of Northern Illinois.

KSU went up 31-7 at the half by scoring four touchdowns and a field goal on five possessions and rolling up 346 yards. Kansas State made it 52-7 with 2:25 left in the third quarter when Klein hit Tyler Lockett over the middle for a 20-yard score.

A national panel of experts selects the weekly winner of the Academy’s College Football Game of the Year Contest. Each week’s winner is considered for the award honoring the best College Football Game of the Year at the end of the season.

This committee is currently chaired by Jack Lengyel, the former athletic director at the United States Naval Academy. Lengyel was also a college football coach best known for being the head coach who resurrected the Marshall University football program, as depicted in the 2006 film, “We Are Marshall.”

Daniel Moore, the American Sports Art Museum and Archives (ASAMA) 2005 Sport Artist of the Year, is commissioned by the Academy each year to create a painting honoring the selected College Football Game of the Year. The Academy, also known as America’s Sports University, donates the painting and $5,000 to the general scholarship fund of the annual winner.

One of the top consumer education groups ranked the United States Sports Academy’s online master’s programs as the 29th “Best Buy” in the country.

Get Educated’s national online learning review team recently released its rankings for its Best Online Master’s in Management Programs for 2012.

The ranking takes in consideration all online management programs, not just sports management degrees. The Academy, the largest graduate school of sports education in the world, offers master’s degrees in Sports Coaching, Sports Health and Fitness, Sports Management and Sport Studies.

A Best Buy designation indicates the Academy’s program has undergone an independent and comprehensive review and was found to offer a high-quality distance learning degree in management to online students at a cost that’s well below the national average.

The average cost of an online Master’s in Management from Get Educated’s survey is $23,204, with the least expensive being $8,406 and the most expensive being $66,300. It costs $19,325 in tuition and fees to complete the Academy’s master’s program.

There is NO cost for Get Educated’s service. The consumer group provides fact-based, data driven rankings to the public as a service to help them locate the best online degrees on the dimensions of cost and reputation.

Get Educated editors launched the Best Buy award program to help showcase America’s often hidden gems of online learning affordability. The group reports that the number one question its counselors receive from students involves where they can obtain a high-quality degree at a reasonable cost.

“We are pleased to spotlight your program as a Best Buy at a time when national concerns about the cost of a college education have reached critical levels,” says Wyatt Christman, a Get Educated spokesman. “(The Academy) should be proud of its school’s achievement of being selected among the Best Online Universities for affordability in the area of online learning among your regionally-accredited peers.”

The United States Sports Academy is an independent, nonprofit, accredited, special mission sports university created to serve the nation and the world with programs in instruction, research and service. The role of the Academy is to prepare men and women for careers in the profession of sports. For more information about the Academy, call 251-626-3303 or visit www.ussa.edu.

Texas Tech quarterback Seth Doege threw for six touchdowns and 499 yards and it was the Red Raiders offense that steamrolled over West Virginia in a 49-14 victory that earned is selection as the Week 7 winner of the United States Sports Academy’s 2012 College Football Game of the Year Contest.

Last year's United States Sports Academy's College Football Game of the Year was Alabama's shutout, 21-0, of LSU in the national championship game. Daniel Moore's painting of the Game of the Year can be purchased online at newlifeart.com.

Entering the game, the Mountaineers had a 52 point scoring average but fell short of that against the Texas Tech defense by 38 points and got just one touchdown in the second half, which came when the game was already out of reach.

The Red Raiders contained Heisman Trophy hopeful Geno Smith, who completed 29-of-55 passes for 275 yards for West Virginia but couldn’t get the ball in the end zone.

Meanwhile, Doege threw TD passes of 39, 19, 16, 2, 29 and 7 yards. He completed 32-of-42 passes and the six touchdowns matched his career-high. Texas Tech had 18 plays of 15 yards or more, including a 61-yard pass to Jace Amaro and a 53-yard touchdown run by SaDale Foster.

A national panel of experts selects the weekly winner of the Academy’s College Football Game of the Year Contest. Each week’s winner is considered for the award honoring the best College Football Game of the Year at the end of the season.

This committee is currently chaired by Jack Lengyel, the former athletic director at the United States Naval Academy. Lengyel was also a college football coach best known for being the head coach who resurrected the Marshall University football program, as depicted in the 2006 film, “We Are Marshall.”

Daniel Moore, the American Sports Art Museum and Archives (ASAMA) 2005 Sport Artist of the Year, is commissioned by the Academy each year to create a painting honoring the selected College Football Game of the Year. The Academy, also known as America’s Sports University, donates the painting and $5,000 to the general scholarship fund of the annual winner

With rolling enrollment, the Academy’s students start their courses as soon as they are accepted without having to wait for the next semester to begin. The Academy is proud to announce its latest monthly graduates:

B’Beth Weldon, a well-known Fairhope, Ala., artist, was chosen to become a member of the United States Sports Academy’s Art Committee.

“It is a great honor to be asked to join the United States Sports Academy’s Art Committee,” Weldon said. “It is my hope to draw on my past and present experiences and to be a compliment to the committee and the Academy’s American Sport Art Museum and Archives (ASAMA). It is always a pleasure to be involved with art and artists, and I truly look forward to joining the committee.”

Weldon grew up painting and drawing with her mother, Margaret Weldon, a celebrated artist. She spent most of her summers in Point Clear and Fairhope, Ala., where when she was not riding horses or sailing, Weldon studied art from other well-known artists along the Gulf Coast.

Educated in Washington, D.C., Weldon studied at Mount Vernon College and Georgetown University, earning degrees in Business Administration and in Arts and Humanities, respectively. While in Washington D.C., she worked for the Smithsonian Institute and Capital Children’s Museum.

Weldon currently works as a full-time artist in her studio in Fairhope. In addition to teaching art classes to children and adults, Weldon enjoys holding her “Gifted Masterpieces” workshops. Her paintings are held in private and corporate collections both nationally and internationally.

Weldon was selected by Point Clear Charities, Inc. to be the “2011 Official Artist for Polo at the Point.” She was also selected to be the Providence Hospital Foundation’s “Official Artist for the 2013 Festival of Flowers.”

“As an artist, and drawing on my background and involvement in the community, I see the need to continue to promote the arts,” Weldon said. “The thought of those whose lives have been changed and enhanced not only by the United States Sports Academy but also the American Sport Art Museum and Archives excites me. The opportunity to continue to touch others through the arts is amazing. It is my intent to continue with the mission and traditions set forth.”

ASAMA, a division of the United States Sports Academy, is dedicated to the preservation of sports art, history, and literature. The ASAMA collection is composed of nearly 1,700 works of sport art across a variety of media, including paintings, sculptures, assemblages, prints and photographs. It is arguably the largest sport art collection in the world. The museum is open free to the public from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays at One Academy Drive in Daphne, Ala. For more information about the Academy’s sport art museum, please visit www.asama.org.

The United States Sports Academy’s 2012 Ronald Reagan Media Award winner is Bob Costas, who has been the primetime television host of a record nine Olympic games.

Bob Costas

Costas, who joined NBC Sports in 1980 and has the longest tenure of any of the network’s sports announcers, presided over the most watched TV event ever in the United States with more than 219.4 million American viewers tuning in during the 17-day event. The NBC primetime broadcast of the Olympics averaged 31.1 million viewers.

The Academy’s Ronald Reagan Media Award, named in honor of the 40th President of the United States, is presented annually to an individual for outstanding contributions to sport through broadcasting, print, photography or acting. The individual, like this year’s award winner, should exhibit imagination, excitement and genius in kindling a keen public interest and appreciation for the role of sport in modern society.

During his nearly 40-year career, Costas has handled a wide array of assignments, including play-by-play, studio hosting and reporting. He now hosts NBC’s “Football Night in America” studio show and provides some commentary during NBC’s Sunday night game—the highest rated series on American prime-time television with as many as 20 million viewers a week.

He also serves as co-host of NBC’s coverage of the U.S. Open, Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes. Costas hosts a regular interview show titled MLB Network Studio 42 with Bob Costas as well as special programming, and provides play-by-play for select live Thursday Night Baseball games.

Costas, who won the Academy’s Regan Media Award in 1991, has won a record eight National Sportcaster of the Year awards from the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, and was inducted into that organization’s Hall of Fame in 2012. In addition, Costas has won 23 Emmy awards—more than any sports broadcaster.

Kim Mulkey made NCAA history in 2012 when the head coach of the Baylor University women’s basketball team led the Lady Bears to a perfect 40-game season—the first for any collegiate basketball program—that was capped with a national championship.

Kim Mulkey

For her record of success that has made Mulkey the first person, male or female, in NCAA history to win a basketball national championship as a player, assistant coach, and head coach, she has earned the United States Sports Academy’s 2012 C. Vivian Stringer Coaching Award.

The Academy’s C. Vivian Stringer Coaching Award is annually presented to someone like Mulkey who has experienced outstanding achievement as a coach for female teams. In addition, the coaching award honors women who exhibit a high standard of propriety, imagination, and innovation as a character-builder in the tradition of great teacher-coaches.

Entering her 13th season at Baylor, Mulkey’s teams have won two national championships, made three Final Fours, and reached the Sweet 16 seven times in Baylor’s 11 NCAA tournament appearances. The Lady Bears won the national championship last year by defeating Notre Dame and also won in 2005.

Baylor has won 20 games in every season since Mulkey took over the program in 2000. In fact, she won her 300th career game in her 12th season, which is faster than any other active coaches ranked ahead of her in total victories. Connecticut’s Geno Auriemma attained the milestone in 13 seasons and Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer did it in 14 years. Mulkey’s overall record is 338 wins and 79 losses, which gives her .811 winning percentage that ranks fifth all-time.

Mulkey was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000 for her accomplishments as a player at Louisiana Tech University. Since the inception of the NCAA women’s tournament in 1982, which Mulkey won as a player with Louisiana Tech, she has been involved in that tournament as a player or coach every year except 1985 and 2003. She also won the 1984 gold medal as a member of the United States team.

Under the leadership of Mike Krzyzewski since 2005, the United States men’s basketball team made up of some of the top American professional basketball players in the NBA won gold medals at the 2012 London and 2008 Bejing Olympic Games.

Mike Krzyzewski

For his ability to command the Olympic teams’ respect, motivate them to seriously approach the international game and get them to carry themselves like professionals on and off the floor, Krzyzewski has earned the United States Sports Academy’s 2012 Amos Alonzo Stagg Coaching Award.

“To be recognized by the United States Sports Academy again is just incredible,” said Krzyzewski, who won in 2009 and 1992. “You can be sure that I will always try to do things in a manner that best exemplifies the values and the principles you teach at the Sports Academy.”

Krzyzewski, head coach at Duke University since 1980 and the winningest men’s coach in NCAA Division I basketball history, credits the United States’ “Dream Team” of players for losing just one of 63 games in international play for him.

“They want to play for the U.S., so it’s not like me having to do some magical things to get them to play,” he said at a postgame press conference after the United States defeated Spain, 107-100 in London to secure gold. “All of them to a man said, ‘Coach, I’ll do whatever you want me to do to win the gold medal.’ They’re terrific.”

It is believed that Krzyzewski, who has served as a head and assistant coach for the United States basketball team over the years since 1979, coached his final game as the head coach of USA Basketball’s men’s senior team at the 2012 London Games. He served as an assistant coach when the USA won gold at the 1984 Los Angeles and 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games.

Krzyzewski has won the Stagg Coaching Award twice before in 2009 again for his Olympic coaching and in 1992 when his Duke squad repeated as national champions. In his 37-year college coaching career, Krzyzewski’s Duke teams have won four national titles with the last one coming in 2010. His career record entering the 2012-13 season is 927 wins, and 289 losses for a .762 winning percentage. Krzyzewski surpassed Bob Knight, his former coach when he was a player at Army, on the all-time win list with his 903rd victory last season on Nov. 15, 2011, when Duke defeated Michigan State, 74–69, at Madison Square Garden.

Unranked North Carolina State shocked No. 3 Florida State by throwing a touchdown on fourth down with only 16 seconds left in the game to pull out a 17-16 victory.

The Wolfpacks’ win, which shook up the race for both the Atlantic Coast Conference and national championship, earned selection as the Week 6 winner of the United States Sports Academy’s 2012 College Football Game of the Year Contest.

Last year's United States Sports Academy's College Football Game of the Year was Alabama's shutout, 21-0, of LSU in the national championship game. Daniel Moore's painting of the Game of the Year can be purchased online at newlifeart.com.

North Carolina State trailed FSU, 16-0, at halftime but then its defense and quarterback Mike Glennon’s arm turned the game around.

The explosive FSU attack led by Heisman hopeful EJ Manuel was held to 218 passing yards and 3-of-15 on third down conversions. Meanwhile, Glennon rallied the Wolfpack, completing 30 of 55 passes for 259 yards and two touchdowns. His 2-yard touchdown pass to Bryan Underwood on fourth down with 16 seconds left lifted the Wolfpack over the Seminoles.

FSU historically has trouble playing North Carolina State on the road. When the ranked Seminoles faced an unranked Wolfpack at Carter-Finley Stadium since 1998, Florida State has lost five of the last six times.

A national panel of experts selects the weekly winner of the Academy’s College Football Game of the Year Contest. Each week’s winner is considered for the award honoring the best College Football Game of the Year at the end of the season.

This committee is currently chaired by Jack Lengyel, the former athletic director at the United States Naval Academy. Lengyel was also a college football coach best known for being the head coach who resurrected the Marshall University football program, as depicted in the 2006 film, “We Are Marshall.”

Daniel Moore, the American Sports Art Museum and Archives (ASAMA) 2005 Sport Artist of the Year, is commissioned by the Academy each year to create a painting honoring the selected College Football Game of the Year. The Academy, also known as America’s Sports University, donates the painting and $5,000 to the general scholarship fund of the annual winner.

The United States Sports Academy is set to host its 28th annual Academy’s Awards of Sport celebration, which annually pays tribute to those who have made significant contributions to sport.

This prestigious Awards of Sport event, whose theme is “The Artist & the Athlete,” is scheduled for 5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 1 at the Academy’s Daphne, Ala., campus located at One Academy Drive.

The late United States President Ronald Reagan (left) and Academy President and CEO Dr. Thomas P. Rosandich (center) present the media award to sportscaster Al Michaels (right) in 1988.

The 2012 awards show, which marks the university’s 40th anniversary of excellence in sport education, recognizes many of the world’s top athletes, coaches and administrators from the 2012 London Olympic Games. Also in recognition of the 40th anniversary of the landmark Title IX legislation that ushered in a new era of gender equity in college athletics, the Awards of Sport honors several women pioneers in the sport world. (Click here to see a complete list of the Academy’s 2012 Awards of Sport honorees.)

This year’s show features the Academy’s 2013 Sport Artists of the Year: Primo Angeli and Martin Linson. Primo Angeli is a world-renowned artist who the late International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Juan Antonio Samaranch personally selected to create the official poster to commemorate the 1996 Atlanta Centennial Olympic Games. Martin Linson is the IOC’s 2012 London Olympics Sport and Art Contest winner in the sculpture category with his bronze, “Omnipotent Triumph,” that pays tribute to the Paralympic athlete. He is the second American sculptor in the past three Olympiads to win the international art competition.

The Academy presents awards each year to honor exemplary achievement in coaching, all-around athletic performance, courage, humanitarian activity, fitness and media, sports art, as well as the top professional athletes of the year. The Academy recognizes these men and women through its Sport Artist of the Year, Honorary Doctorates, Distinguished Service Awards, Medallion Series, Athletes of the Year, and Alumni of the Year awards.

Honorees may be nominated by any of the Academy’s worldwide constituents. This assemblage includes administration, alumni, faculty, national faculty, staff, students and members of various organizations and boards that work closely with the Academy on this special project. Following the nomination process, honorees are selected by the Awards of Sport Committee, a special group within the Academy that is comprised of the Academy President’s Cabinet and other staff members with a vested interest and an extensive knowledge of sports and the arts.

Every honoree chosen by the Awards of Sport Committee is presented to the Academy’s Board of Trustees. All honoree selections are subject to a vote and must be formally approved and ratified by this group. Award recipients are traditionally presented with the Academy’s Order of the Eagle Exemplar Medal and Academy Rosette. For more background on the Academy’s Awards of Sport and a list of past winners, click here.

Please, join us for the Awards of Sport celebration at 5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 1 at the United States Sports Academy, located at One Academy Drive in Daphne, Ala. Wine and heavy hors d’oeuvres will be served. RSVP today by calling (251) 626-3303 or by emailing aday@ussa.edu.

The United States Sports Academy’s 28th annual Awards of Sport celebration honors several athletes, coaches and administrators who participated in the 2012 London Olympics.

Among the now household names from the London Games being recognized by the Academy are Sebastian Coe (Eagle Award), the chairman of the 2012 London Olympic Organizing Committee; Bob Costas (Ronald Reagan Media Award), the host of a record ninth Olympic prime-time television broadcast for NBC Sports; Ashton Eaton (Jim Thorpe All-Around Athlete Award), the decathlon gold medalist; Mike Krzyzewski (Amos Alonzo Stagg Coaching Award), the Duke University head basketball coach who guided the USA Olympic men’s basketball team to gold; and U.S. Navy Lt. Bradley Snyder (Juan Antonio Samaranch IOC Disabled Athlete Award), a blind American swimmer and two-time gold medalist in the Paralympics.

The Academy's Awards of Sport began in 1984. Pictured from left to right in this 1985 event are award winners Bo Jackson, Cheryl Miller, Howard Cosell, Eddie Robinson and Dr. Thomas P. Rosandich, Academy President and CEO.

The Academy’s Awards of Sport event annually pays tribute to those who have made significant contributions to sport and follows the theme “The Artist & the Athlete.” The awards show, which marks the university’s 40 years of excellence in sport education, is scheduled for 5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 1 at the Academy’s Daphne, Ala., campus located at One Academy Drive.

EAGLE AWARD
Sebastian Coe was the face of this summer’s Olympic and Paralympic Games as the chairman of the London Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games, earning him the Academy’s 2012 Eagle Award. Coe has a longtime commitment to the Olympic Movement and oversaw what is widely heralded as one of the best staged Olympic Games in recent history. Coe competed as a middle distance runner for Great Britain and is considered among the nation’s top Olympians, winning four Olympic medals at the Games in 1980 and 1984.

The Eagle Award is the Academy’s highest international honor and annually goes to a world leader in sport to recognize that individual’s contributions in promoting international harmony, peace, and goodwill through the effective use of sport.

RONALD REAGAN MEDIA AWARD
Bob Costas has been the primetime television host of a record nine Olympic Games, earning the Academy’s Ronald Reagan Media Award named in honor of the 40th President of the United States. Costas, who joined NBC Sports in 1980 and has the longest tenure of any of the network’s sports announcers, presided over the most watched TV event ever in the United States with more than 219.4 million American viewers tuning in during the 17-day event.

The Ronald Reagan Media Award is presented annually to an individual for outstanding contributions to sport through broadcasting, print, photography or acting. The individual, like this year’s award winner, should exhibit imagination, excitement and genius in kindling a keen public interest and appreciation for the role of sport in modern society.

JIM THORPE ALL-AROUND ATHLETE AWARD
Ashton Eaton, the Olympic decathlon gold medalist and world record holder, earned the 2012 Jim Thorpe All-Around Award from the United States Sports Academy for his accomplishments in an event long recognized for producing the world’s greatest athlete. The 24-year-old Eaton is the latest American to earn the crown in the storied two-day, 10-event competition with his dominating victory at the 2012 London Olympics where he scored a total of 8,869 points—198 more than the nearest competitor.

At the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials, Eaton became the reigning world-record holder by finishing the decathlon with 9,039 points to beat Roman Sebrle’s 11-year-old mark by 13 points and join Sebrle as the only other decathlete to break the 9,000-point barrier.

The Academy’s Jim Thorpe All-Around Award is presented to an individual who has demonstrated outstanding achievement in multiple sports and/or multiple events of the same sport. This individual should exhibit the qualities of versatility, strength, speed, flexibility, conditioning and training that exemplify superior athletic prowess. Jim Thorpe was an American Indian who became a legend for his athletic prowess at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm where he won both the pentathlon and decathlon events.

AMOS ALONZO STAGG COACHING AWARD
Mike Krzyzewski has led the United States men’s basketball team made up of some of the top American professional basketball players in the NBA since 2005, winning gold medals at the 2012 London and 2008 Bejing Olympic Games. Under Krzyzewski, who heads Duke University’s men’s basketball team, the United States lost just one of 63 games in international play.

The Academy’s Amos Alonzo Stagg Coaching Award is presented each year to an individual who has experienced outstanding achievement as a coach for male teams. This person should exhibit a high standard of propriety, imagination, and innovation as a character-builder in the tradition of great teacher-coaches. Amos Alonzo Stagg’s exemplary career is immortally enshrined not only for his all-time victory record of 314-199-35, but for his long-standing dedication to his life’s work as coach and teacher.

JUAN ANTONIO SAMARANCH IOC DISABLED ATHLETE AWARD
U.S. Navy Lt. Bradley Snyder, who despite losing his eyesight a year ago when he stepped on an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan won gold medals in the 100- and 400-meter freestyle and silver in the 50 at the 2012 London Paralympic Games. The 28-year-old Snyder also holds several world records in swimming for blind athletes. Because of his performances, the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) gave Snyder the honor of serving as the United States’ flag bearer for the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

The Academy’s Juan Antonio Samaranch IOC Disabled Athlete Award is presented annually to the physically or mentally challenged athlete who displays courage, desire, and athletic ability in the face of adversity to achieve the goals set forth in the athlete’s particular arena of competition.

For more background on the Academy’s Awards of Sport and a list of past winners, click here.

Please, join us for the Awards of Sport celebration at 5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 1 at the United States Sports Academy, located at One Academy Drive in Daphne, Ala. Wine and heavy hors d’oeuvres will be served. RSVP today by calling (251) 626-3303 or by emailing aday@ussa.edu.

Several women pioneers in the sports world earned Distinguished Service Awards (DSA) and other honors from the United States Sports Academy’s 28th annual Awards of Sport to highlight the 40th anniversary of the landmark Title IX legislation that ushered in a new era of gender equity in college athletics.

Pat Summitt (right), the former University of Tennessee head women's basketball coach, earned an Honorary Doctorate from the Academy in 2008 that was presented by Academy President and CEO Dr. Thomas P. Rosandich (left). Summitt has won more basketball games than any other college coach in history, men’s or women’s.

The Academy’s Awards of Sport event annually pays tribute to those who have made significant contributions to sport and follows the theme “The Artist & the Athlete.” The awards show, which marks the university’s 40 years of excellence in sport education, is scheduled for 5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 1 at the Academy’s Daphne, Ala., campus located at One Academy Drive.

Among the nation’s top women in sports to be recognized by the Academy during to mark the 40th anniversary of Title IX are:

Billie Jean King, who earned an Honorary Doctorate from the Academy, is a legendary women’s professional tennis player who empowered women and educated men when she defeated Bobby Riggs in one of the greatest moments in sports history—the Battle of the Sexes in 1973. She continues to be a force in the advancement of women’s sports today.

Christine Grant, who earned the Academy’s Distinguished Service Award, is one of the most highly respected college sports administrators, especially for her work with Title IX and as a founding member and past president of Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW). Grant, the University of Iowa’s former women’s athletic director, is viewed as one of the most respected scholars and activists on the Title IX issue.

Sue Gozansky is being honored with a DSA for her career as a player, coach, administrator and eventually a strong proponent for women’s sports during the 40-year evolution of Title IX. Gozansky began forging a path in women’s athletics before the law passed in 1972, playing on the UCLA and U.S. national volleyball team. In 1970, when she was hired at University of California, Riverside, she became one of the few female collegiate coaches in the United States.

Julie Foudy, a former star American women soccer player and current ESPN sportscaster, earned a Distinguished Service Award for becoming an outspoken advocate for women in sports in 2003 when the Title IX Commission was trying to weaken the landmark federal law. Foudy publicly criticized the Commission, attacking its proposed changes for among other things ignoring critical evidence, slanting facts, and inaccurately portraying the commission’s process as “open, fair and inclusive.”

For more background on the Academy’s Awards of Sport and a list of past winners, click here.

Please, join us for the Awards of Sport celebration at 5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 1 at the United States Sports Academy, located at One Academy Drive in Daphne, Ala. Wine and heavy hors d’oeuvres will be served. RSVP today by calling (251) 626-3303 or by emailing aday@ussa.edu.